Low Odds, High Odds: UCL RO16 - 22/02/22

On Tuesday Chelsea hosts champions of France Lille at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of the Champions League’s Round of 16 ties.

The Blues come into this game as firm favourites as they are the current holders of this competition, whilst Lille are 11th in their domestic league and are struggling to replicate last season’s heroics.

Chelsea come into this match off the back of a narrow 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park thanks to an 89th-minute winner from Hakim Ziyech, in this match, they managed four corners, whilst the Eagles also managed the same amount. Meanwhile, Lille’s 0-0 draw with Metz on Friday saw them have 10 corners against their opposition.

According to the FA Betting Hub app, Chelsea and Lille have a combined average of 11.7 corners across each of their last five matches in all competitions.

As mentioned above, Ziyech scored the winning goal at the weekend for Chelsea in their hard-fought victory at Selhurst Park against Palace, which was the Morroccan’s sixth goal of the season, on top of the four assists that he has managed in 27 matches, seeing him as the Blues fourth top scorer so far this campaign.

The two most recent meetings between these two finished as 2-1 wins to Chelsea in the 2019/20 season when Frank Lampard was in charge of the Blues, and with being a more complete team under Thomas Tuchel, you wouldn’t bet against them managing more than the two goals that they managed against the Ligue 1 outfit on both of their previous matches.

Lille could only draw 0-0 against Metz last time out off the back of a 1-0 victory away at Montpellier, but, have shown that their defence can be quite shaky at times, especially when they were hammered 5-1 at home to PSG in early February.

The second game in the Champions League to take place on Tuesday night is Villarreal against Juventus at Estadio de la Ceramica.

Unai Emery’s men who are the current holders of the Europa League will be expected to give Juve a tough test, having advanced as runners-up in Group F, behind Manchester United, but, ahead of Atalanta and Young Boys.

A player that has shone for the Yellow Submarine this campaign is summer signing Arnaut Danjuma, as the former AFC Bournemouth man has scored 12 goals and created three assists in 21 matches since his €25m move from the Vitality Stadium in the summer, with four of these being in his six Champions League appearances.

The 25-year-old Netherlands international managed to score a hat-trick in his side’s impressive 4-1 hammering of Granada at the weekend, hence why he is priced at 3/1 to score anytime against the Old Lady on Tuesday.

The final tip on this list sees Dusan Vlahovic and Juventus heavily involved, with Massimiliano Allegri's side tipped as favourites to win the first-leg in Spain against Villarreal.

This campaign has been a tough one at times for Juve, but, they look to have gotten through the worst of it, as they currently sit fourth in the Serie A standings, after also managing to top Group H, ahead of Chelsea, Zenit St Petersburg and Malmo.

Juve’s January transfer window say they make two key additions to their squad, as they completed deals for Denis Zakaria of Borussia Monchengladbach and Dusan Vlahovic from Fiorentina.

22-year-old Serbian forward, Vlahovic is currently the second top scorer in Serie A with 18 goals and two assists in 24 matches, averaging a goal every 118 minutes and will be hoping to make a mark in what will be his first-ever Champions League appearance when he lines up for the Old Lady at Villarreal.